The remote town of Coober Pedy, Australia, is home to about 2,000 people, many of whom gravitated there to mine opal. The extreme climate of the Outback meant residents had to find creative ways to ...

CICERO, Ind. (Hamilton County Reporter) — Dean Caldwell of Cicero has been mining opal and obsidian for six months of the year in Mexico for the last 15 years. Last year, he pulled an opal out of the ...

White Cliffs Miners’ Association President Troy Karkoe expresses frustration over government red tape resulting from native ...

It's freezing cold, scorching hot and a source of Australia's opals. Here's what life's like when you have to jury-rig even the most basic tech to survive. Claire Reilly was a video host, journalist ...

(CNN)-- A hunt for precious gemstones revealed the first fossil evidence of a dinosaur herd, including a previously undiscovered dinosaur species, in Australia. The new dinosaur fossil was found in an ...

The beautiful optical properties of the gemstone opal are the result of tiny amounts of uranium present when the stones were formed, say researchers in Australia. They claim that their work could lead ...

Gemstones are precious, especially when they come filled with dinosaur bones. Back in the 1980s, a miner unearthed a slew of fossils preserved in opals in an opal mine near Lightning Ridge in ...

The red dirt in central Australia might be a close mimic for the red surface of Mars, suggests research that sheds light on how opals formed in the land Down Under. Precious opal is Australia’s ...

SPENCER, Idaho — From Interstate 15, the tiny town passes in a moment, just a blip of brown buildings in the desert. But inside the local stores is a treasure trove. The fire of opals erupts from ...

The remote town of Coober Pedy, Australia, is home to about 2,000 people, many of whom gravitated there to mine opal. The extreme climate of the Outback meant residents had to find creative ways to ...